Curved Kakeya sets for generic phases in odd dimensions

Abstract

We show that for each odd integer $n\ge 3$, there is an open dense subset of H\"ormander phase functions in $\mathbb{R}^n$ for which the associated curved Kakeya sets have Hausdorff dimension at least $\frac{n+1}{2} + d_n$ for some positive $d_n$, thereby exceeding the classical compression threshold. In particular, in $\mathbb{R}^3$, generic H\"ormander phases induce curved Kakeya sets of dimension at least $2 + \tfrac17$. As an application, on a generic three-dimensional Riemannian manifold, a local Nikodym set has Hausdorff dimension at least $2 + \tfrac17$. We achieve these results by generalizing the finite contact order condition from Dai--Gong--Guo--Zhang, originally developed in $\mathbb{R}^3$, to arbitrary dimensions. Our bounds are stronger than those of Dai--Gong--Guo--Zhang even in $\mathbb{R}^3$, since we derive curved Kakeya estimates directly via the polynomial method. Moreover, for H\"ormander-type oscillatory integral operators with positive-definite phases of finite contact order, we obtain quantitative improvements in all odd dimensions over the bounds of Guth--Hickman--Iliopoulou, while in three dimensions our oscillatory integral estimate exactly matches the result of Dai--Gong--Guo--Zhang.